Do-It-Yourself Comics: Vic Boone

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A look at the next big thing in the small press.

By Joey Esposito

It's a tough business being a small press creator. You're constantly facing an uphill battle, duking it out with the likes of Batman and the X-Men. If the comics business is to continue and hopefully thrive, it's up to the readers to dabble in new things, support new creators and promote new ideas. Comics are a versatile artform, and it's easy to forget that there's a whole world of comics that go beyond Marvel and DC.

One pitfall of the small press is the necessity for pre-order; it's up to your local comic book shop to order the books that their customers want to buy. With the Big Two, it's a sure thing that your shop will have the latest and greatest from Spider-Man and his amazing friends. More often than not, if you don't go and actually tell them about a certain independent title you want ordered, it won't be appearing on your store's shelf.

To do our part, we're starting up the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Comics Spotlight, spreading the word on self-published and small press comics that you need to be reading. One of our goals at IGN Comics is to introduce our readers to new things, helping to expand interest in all facets of the comic book industry. If you've got a friend that doesn't read comics, it's likely because they haven't found the kind of book that interests them. 9 times out of 10, their interests lie in something that can be found in the small press.

On June 29th, small press publisher 215 Ink will be releasing Vic Boone #1, a creator-owned series by Shawn Aldridge and Geoffo that originated as an entry in DC Comics' defunct Zuda competition. As a longtime fan of this character, I could think of no better place to start this new feature. A few months back, we offered up our review of Vic Boone #1, calling it "a new comic series that contains some of the best aspects of multiple genres jammed together into one hell of a fresh feeling jazz fusion medley." We've included some great preview pages of Vic Boone #2 courtesy of 215 Ink, and if you like what you see, we urge you to head to your local comic shop and ask them to order you a copy. The Diamond Previews order code is JUN111259, and yes -- 215 Ink draws the line at $2.99.

So who is Vic Boone? I talked with writer Shawn Aldridge to find out. "[He's] an ex-motorcycle daredevil turned private eye, who lives in a world where the B-movie science fiction of early Hollywood was more or less history," explained Aldridge. "It's pulp noir science fiction wrapped in a tortilla shell of absurdity."

When you dig into Vic Boone #1, you'll notice that this bizarre world isn't really explained, but Aldridge offered up his reasoning for that. "You definitely want to create a solid world, but you also want the reader to ponder and guess at things too. Plus, who wants four pages of 'how we got here' when you can have four pages of Boone fighting 7 foot gorillas? There will be some future stories that touch on how this world came about, as well as a few that look at its current social and political atmosphere."

The world of Vic Boone is certainly unique, but his affinity for death defying stunts are even more so. Aldridge expressed his desire to explore this aspect of the character even further. "In issue #3 there's a scene where Boone will... well, let's just say, you'll believe a motorcycle can fly... or get pretty high of the ground. As for future stories, I'd really like to write a great chase scene involving Boone, his motorcycle, and a UFO."

Vic Boone has come a long way since I first talked with Aldridge a couple of years ago as a Zuda creator. Even back then, after Boone didn't win the competition, I expressed my desire to see it continue in some way. "Well, at least I finally got you that Vic Boone series you wanted," said Aldridge with a laugh. "At its heart, the concept is pretty much the same. It's probably evolved a bit here and there, but only because I've evolved as a writer. Yes, the first story arc, Malfunction: Murder, is exactly the same story that would have appeared had Boone won Zuda, though it too has evolved over time. But again, that's probably a byproduct of me, hopefully, being a better writer than I was back then."

DC's Zuda had been aimed at finding new creators through the tool that is the Internet, but required readers to vote on the competitors. Ultimately, this led it to be nothing more than a popularity contest. While the web imprint spawned some huge successes like High Moon and Black Cherry Bombshells, some true gems -- like Vic Boone -- were left by the wayside.

So why did Zuda fail? "The short answer is Zuda wanted to use the power of the Internet to find new talent and build a community, but really wasn't equipped to avoid all the negatives that come along with it," said Alrdridge. But he suggests that a tweaked format could achieve the goals that Zuda failed to. "It would have to be structured differently than Zuda. And I'm not sure voting should be involved. Just the other day, I said to another creator that I thought DC and Marvel could use their respective websites to do something akin to the old try-out books -- put up stories done by lesser/unknown talent."

After Zuda, Boone made its way to 215 Ink, a Philadelphia-based small press publisher most notable for its series and soon-to-be feature film, Jesus Hates Zombies. "[I saw] an ad on some site I can't recall. It said they were looking for writers, artists, etc. I sent them a link to some of my work, including Vic Boone, asking if they had need for a writer. They didn't, but they were looking for creator-owned stuff. After some back and forth emails, it was decided Vic Boone would come out through them. And I can safely say, I don't think Boone could have ended up at a better place."